Wydawnictwo Militaria

Tank Power 571

Marder II

Established in 1990 in Warsaw, Poland, Wydawnictwo Militaria publishes an extensive range of military monographs focused on specific vehicles or other military weapons systems. The Tank Power series of books can be found with exclusively Polish text, Polish and English text, and Polish text with Polish / English photo captions. Wydawnictwo Militaria books are now carried in the US by David Doyle Books.

The subject(s) of this book are the World War II German Marder II self propelled anti-tank guns, the Sd Kfz 131 and Sd Kfz 132.

During its invasion of Russia in 1941, the Germans encountered much better Russian armor than expected, and had to devise the means to deal with it in a hurry. They’d captured vast numbers of Russian 76.2mm guns in the swift advances of the summer of ‘41, and rapidly determined a plan to rework them to use German ammunition and mount them on obsolete German tank chassis ( Panzer II, as well as Czech Panzer 38t ). These long barreled, high velocity guns provided enough punch to deal with the T34’s and KV tanks that were giving the Germans fits. Later Marder variants used newly developed German PaK 40 7.5cm guns on modified Panzer II chassis. Both variants of the Marder II were open topped and thinly armored, making them more suitable for fixed positions or defensive uses. The Marders served on all German fronts until the end of WWII.

Vital Statistics

Format - softcover,  portrait format

 Page Count - heavyweight, glossy paper, 66 pages

 Size - 8.0” x 11.5”

Photos - B&W period images, a handful of full color images.

Tables / Drawings / Diagrams -  line drawings, several informational tables, nine full color vehicle renderings

All text, including photo captions is in Polish / English.

What’s in the Book?

This book has no table of contents, but is arranged in a roughly chronological order.

The book opens with an examination of the captured Soviet 76.2cm guns pressed into German service for the early Marder Sd Kfz 132 vehicles. The text is informative, and accompanied by some nice photographs.

Speaking of text, the text in this book is in Polish AND English. This includes photo captions as well. The text is arranged by a column in Polish, with a column translated into English to the right of it. This is a solid solution to the two language issue, and doesn’t detract from the value of the text itself.

The author provides well written ( and well translated ) text throughout the volume, giving the reader plenty of background on the development and use of these potent vehicles. Interesting period photographs accompany the text. Note the camouflage scheme on the lower right hand photo above.

Above - Very nice line drawings of different variants of the Marder II Sd Kfz 131, all in 1/35 scale.

Above - while some of the period images contained in this work are just a bit dark, they are still of value due to the interesting subject matter. Also seen above is one of the many informational tables found throughout this book.

Above - more nicely done line drawings, these showing the higher profile Marder II Sd Kfz 132

Above - a nice two page spread showing the integration of text, tables, line drawings and solid period photographs. 

The Tank Power books that I’ve examined do a quite nice job of illustration of the vehicles and their components. The above image shows the various arrangements of on board tools of the Sd Kfz 131.

Above - a diagram showing the organization of a Marder equipped AT battalion 

Above - a table showing which units were issued Marders, also including variants issued and dates. German record keeping in WWII was meticulous until the bitter end.

There are four surviving Marder II throughout the world, including one Sd Kfz 131 located in a Swedish museum that is shown in this book. Full color interior and exterior photographs are provided of this example. The images are well composed and well lit.

The book closes with more views of the surviving Swedish museum example of the Sd Kfz 131 Marder. Also seen above right are some nicely done full color renderings of the Marder II, both versions. The book’s inner cover, and both sides of the rear cover each have three of these well done full color renderings, for a total of nine in all. 

Conclusions

This volume provides a very good look at these interesting vehicles. I’m glad that this particular work has English text, as it makes for a more complete reference work as opposed to other Wydawnictwo works using only Polish text (speaking strictly as one having no Polish language skills).

For a relatively slim volume at 66 pages, the author has packed a great deal of useful and interesting reference information into this volume. The text work is well written, the line drawings and full color renderings are well done, the tables are informative and the photographs are largely quite good.

I find this work to be of high value to those with an interest in these vehicles, and well worthy of a place in your reference bookcase.

Highly Recommended!

Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review copy

Reviewed by Chuck Aleshire, AMPS Chicagoland

AMPS 2nd Vice President, Midwest Region

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